PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Feb. 26th, 2015]

Well, it wasn’t quite the “Army of Darkness” upgrade that it usually is but, I enjoyed this week’s Smackdown.  There were a lot of things being tested out and the fact that improvements are being attempted is promising.  Better than just sticking to a whole lot of shit that just doesn’t work, that is for sure.  I think we can, not so much rest assured but be somewhat optimistic about our road to WrestleMania.  I’m not expecting to be utterly blown away, though it’d be nice, but I think we will get our money’s worth at the very least so we should generally simmer down and try to enjoy the ride.  No doubt it’ll get bumpy from time to time but, isn’t that the fun of the WWE Universe? No day is ever the same, repetitive at times but always different.

We open in Atlanta, Georgia with our favorite hero in Daniel Bryan greeting us.  He has some consternation about something.  Life, sometimes deals you a bad hand and Bryan feels that his injury was equivalent to that but what makes it sting a little more is that he never got a second chance to reclaim the Heavyweight Championship Title.  He tried but, we know how that went.  Does this setback deflate the YES! Movement? Of course not!  It is alive and strong and though he’s not in the main event, he’ll certainly be participating somewhere. Yet, someone doesn’t much care for this and wouldn’t you know, it’s Wade “Bad News” Barrett.  Oy! I don’t know what you’re on about but this bloody YES! Movement is a bunch of bullocks! You got all these people looking like idiots.  It’s baloney like this and the hijinks that wanker Dean Ambrose has got going on that are running this place into the ground.  Ambrose’s ears burning, he figures it’s best to present himself and out he comes with Barrett’s thieved Intercontinental Title Belt. Barrett turns, “Son of a—" and these 2 go at it.  Since the 2 of them start to brawl, they travel around the ring enough for the belt to get “left behind” in the ring and an amused Bryan picks it up.  Hmm…a title is better than no title.  But before he can fully consider the option, BNB gets back into the ring and demands it back.  Give me back what’s mine you little goat! Bryan doesn’t need it like that and meaning no offense, hands it to its “rightful” owner but with Barrett focused on the belt, Ambrose is able to sneak attack.  Bryan lends a kick to help and Ambrose takes back what he stole, fair and square but not before eying Bryan for a bit.

Ambrose hangs around because he has a match with The Miz.  Damien Mizdow is apparently booked at a “commercial shoot” so, he won’t be ringside this evening.  The match is what it is.  It’s here mainly to push the Intercontinental Championship angle which it does.  As for the match, Ambrose does what you’d think he would and takes some hits while toying with The Miz yet, in the middle of the match, seeing how Ambrose is occupied Barrett makes his way out.  He not so slyly reclaims his title and lets Ambrose deal with that.  He does and ends The Miz with Dirty Deeds to get over it.

We then have a feisty Divas match with Naomi and Natalya still at odds.  The Usos, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are in the respective corners.  These 2 ladies are very talented and it shows in this match.  I teased on the Twitters that pudding should be involved, just because of the catty story that they’re selling. They were amping up the bitchiness towards each other and giving it a solid effort.  I couldn’t help but giggle when they collided with each other, though.  It’s kinda cute to see 2 ladies just crash together and bounce off of each other.  Yet, Nattie resorts to a trick and plays up an ankle injury, causing Naomi to let down her guard so that Nattie can clothesline her for the win.  Yet, this gets the boys started and so this all deteriorates in the end but fortunately, not in a bad way.

Next up, we have Lana and Rusev out to do their routine America bashing or rather John Cena bashing for this evening.  I thought they kinda took their time with this for I wasn’t really too engaged with it yet, instead of Cena having something to say we have Jack Swagger.  Haven’t seen “Cornfed” in a minute and to my surprise, he’s speaking for himself.   You talk a lot of trash, Rusev.  So much so, I’m beginning to think all that talk is to cover up something else.  Could it be that you’re really a coward?  Rusev says he’ll show Swagger who the coward is, in Russian and the 2 proceed to box.  Swagger makes a good run at the onset but Rusev gets his big self up and lands a kick and places a dazed Swagger into the Accolade to take the match.

To follow, Daniel Bryan and Wade Barrett have themselves a spirited dance.  Actually, what makes this match fun is R-Truth sitting in on Commentary.  I know a lot of people didn’t care for his shtick but I found it funny.  His calling Byron Saxton “coach” reminded me of the football players in BeetleJuice.  Though, it appears it’s just R-Truth’s sense of humor showing by “mistaking” him for Johnathan Coachman, an ESPN anchor and former WWE commentator as well.  He definitely gets points for fleshing out his gimmick.  He’s gonna have to if he really wants us to give him a chance.  As for the match, we get introduced to some new camera angles as there are hidden cameras in the corner poles.  The new vantage point does kinda give you a first-person-shooter perspective so you can get an idea of what it's like to be in there.  Though Daniel Bryan isn’t that big of a guy, still don’t know if I could really handle him flying at me feet first.  Nevertheless, it’s a Flying Knee that gets him the win and to add insult to injury, Barrett’s title has gone missing again. R-Truth swears it wasn’t him but later on, we see that it was.  Sneaky-sneaky.  The hijinks made this an entertaining segment all around and it seems like we got ourselves a dispersed rivalry brewing between Ambrose, Bryan, Barrett and R-Truth.  Could this be the makings of a Fatal-4-Way for WrestleMania?

Moving right along, we take a moment to sit with Roman Reigns and pick his brain a little bit.  Well, Byron Saxton does this really and we watch.  I couldn’t help but notice that the Twitters and social medias in general were kinda quiet about this and that could be because quite frankly, there’s nothing wrong with the interview.  If anything, it’s kinda nice to see some of the human aspect of him.  You know, get a glimpse of the person “behind the mask”.  Granted, this sit-down is scripted or at least paraphrased but, there’s always a bit of truth when someone stands before you be it an act or not.  Yet, I think with all this hubbub we forget that he’s just a man in the end.  He has things going for him and things he has to work on, just like anyone else.  He’s out there doing his best and we can’t really get on him about that, can we.

In any case, we’re given some comedic relief afterwards in the form of Curtis Axel, keeping track of how long he has technically participated in the Royal Rumble.  It’s gotta be a record, right.  And oh yeah, AXELMANIA!   This time out, Fandango answers the call and faux dances in. Axel starts off strong but fizzles fast in this one and Fandango takes the win with a Last Dance.

Looking at the docket we find that Goldust and Adam Rose are up next for a quick yet, cleanly executed match.  It seems like barely a minute passes before Goldust manages to finish Rose off with the Final Cut.  As Goldust exits, a Rosebud costumed as a Paul Frank monkey lands an attack.  We soon discover that Stardust has been lying in wait all this time.  The rest of the match time goes to him destroying his brother and ending him with a Cross Rhodes.

That brings us to the main event, which is a rematch of the Fast Lane 6-Man-Tag. This isn’t a bad match.  We’ve definitely seen better, Enthusiasts but it was well-paced and respectable.  Everyone got to do a little something but I think it was Ryback who got to have the most fun.  Once he gets tagged in towards the end, he flips the switch to “Speed Steamroll” and just puts a foot up it to anyone around and the crowd seems to love it.  “Feed me more!” was rampant and Ryback seems to gain strength from it. After a MeatHook and a ShellShock to Rollins, that’s all she wrote and it’s back to RAW.  I’ll admit this week’s showing was a little phoned in but I’m going to give Smackdown the benefit of the doubt. With WrestleMania around the corner, all Creative’s resources should be pooled so that they ensure a great show.  It’s WrestleMania for godsake, if it’s not awesome what the hell is the point?  But at the same time, who else would muck it up?  Let’s hope the WWE stays out of its own way.

 See You Monday,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)